1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a penetration-resistant composition, armour comprising at least one layer of such a composition, and to a process for manufacturing such a composition.
2. Description of Prior Art
It is known to use high tenacity fibers such as polyaramid fibers in multi-layered structures to provide ballistic protection in body armour. It is furthermore known to include one or more impact-absorbing layers in such structures in order to increase the efficiency of the ballistic protection by slowing down further the ballistic projectiles which penetrate successive layers of the structure.
A significant disadvantage of such known ballistic protection structures is that the stab resistance provided by such structures is usually relatively low because knives and pointed objects will push the high tenacity fibers aside and penetrate the impact-absorbing layers, if any, which are not usually designed to withstand penetration and sharp objects when ballistic protection is the main aim.
This deficiency in protection can be overcome by structures providing both ballistic and stab protection by including relatively heavy penetration-resistant layers made, for example, from ceramic material, steel, titanium or aluminium in the structure, usually facing the outside, in front of the high-tenacity fiber layer(s). However, due to the relatively high specific weight (expressed in kg/m.sup.2) and stiffness of such multi-layer structures, the comfort of wearing body armour made up of these structures is rather unsatisfactory.
It would be of substantial interest to manufacturers and users of armour, alike, if penetration-resistant compositions would be available which would provide excellent protection against ballistic projectiles as well as sharp and/or pointed objects, such as knives and spikes, while at the same time providing a wearer with a comfortable alternative to previously described heavy multilayer structures.
Surprisingly, it has now been found that penetration-resistant compositions which show both ballistic and stab resistance can be provided by bonding at least one high-tenacity fiber layer with a flexible strong polymer layer having specific properties as defined hereinafter.